Soundbite: Kenny Neal 'Lets Life Flow'

Soundbite: Kenny Neal 'Lets Life Flow'

by Brett Thomas, Tahoe Daily TribuneJuly 3, 2008

Kenny Neal begins his first solo album in seven years with the CD’s title track. The passion in his voice is haunting, and it’s an example of what sets blues apart from other musical styles. Sure, anyone can play the notes: It’s how they play those notes that gives music the necessary emotion to call it authentic blues.

Neal wrote the song under incomprehensible circumstances: In less than two years, four of the closest people around him died. Neal’s father, Raful, died of cancer, his sister was murdered, and a week later, drummer and 18-year friend Kennard Johnson died. Neal’s brother Ronnie died of hepatitis C, and soon afterward Kenny himself was diagnosed with the disease.

Neal was too sick to get out of bed when he wrote “Let Life Flow” on his guitar, as Blues Revue reported and a Blind Pig Records spokeswoman confirmed.Life is so unpredictable; that’s the way it is.